Pharisees

The Pharisees (from the Hebrew ''perushim'', from ''parash'', meaning "to separate") were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era ( 536 BC – 70 AD ). After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Pharisaic sect was re-established as Rabbinic Judaism — which ultimately produced normative, traditional Judaism, the basis for all contemporary forms of Judaism. The relationship between the Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism (exemplified by the Talmud ) is so close that many do not distinguish between the two. Nevertheless, the social standing and beliefs of the Pharisees changed over time, as political and social conditions in Judea changed. It is thus impossible to understand the Pharisees without understanding their historical context.

More specifically, the Pharisees were one of the successor groups of the Hasidim (the "pious"), an anti-Hellenic Jewish movement that formed in the time of the Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes ( 175 – 163 BC ). (This group is distinct from the Hasidism established in 18th century Europe .) The first mention of the Pharisees is by the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus , in a description of the four "schools of thought" (that is, social groups or movements) into which the Jews were divided in the 1st Century CE . The other schools were the Essenes , revolutionaries, and the Sadducees . The Essenes were apolitical; the revolutionaries, such as the Sicarii and the Zealots , emerged specifically to resist the Roman Empire . Other sects emerged at this time, such as the Christians in Judea and the Therapeutae in Egypt . The Sadducees and Pharisees began earlier, as political factions in the Hellenistic Hasmonean period of the Second Temple era. At no time did any of these sects constitute a majority; most Jews were non-sectarian. However, Josephus indicates that the Pharisees received the backing and good-will of the common people. Nevertheless, these sects are emblematic of the different responses of Jews to the political, economic, and cultural forces that characterized the Second Temple era.

For most of their history, Pharisees defined themselves in opposition to the Sadducees. Conflicts between the Sadducees and the Pharisees took place in the context of much broader conflicts among Jews in the Second Temple era that followed the Babylonian Captivity Of Judah . One conflict was class, between the wealthy and the poor. Another conflict was cultural, between those who favored hellenization and those who resisted it. A third was juridico-religious, between those who emphasized the importance of the Temple, and those who emphasized the importance of other Mosaic laws and prophetic values. A fourth, specifically religious, involved different interpretations of the Bible, and how to apply the Torah to Jewish life. These conflicts practically define the Second Temple Era, a time when the Temple had tremendous authority but questionable legitimacy, and a time when the sacred literature of the Torah and Bible were being canonized. Fundamentally, Sadducees and Pharisees took clearly opposing positions concerning the third and fourth conflicts, but at different times were influenced by the other conflicts. In general, whereas the Sadducees were conservative, aristocratic monarchists, the Pharisees were eclectic, popular, and more democratic. The Pharisaic position is exemplified by the assertion that "A learned ''mamzer'' takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest." (A ''mamzer'' is an outcast child born of a forbidden relationship, such as adultery or incest; the word is often, but incorrectly, translated as "illegitimate" or "bastard.")

BACKGROUND: THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ISRAEL

Although the Pharisees did not emerge until the Hasmonean period, their origins, like those of the Saducees, may be traced to institutions that developed during the First Temple era. The religion of ancient Israel, like those of most ancient Near Eastern societies, centered on a Temple, served by a caste of priests, who sacrificed offerings to their god. Among the Children of Israel, priests claimed descent from Aaron of the tribe of Levi , and were believed to have been chosen by God to serve God in the Tabernacle during Israel's wanderings in the desert. After the settlement of the land of Canaan, a number of sites served as centers of worship and the priestly service, including Shiloh.

In ancient Israel, as in most ancient Near Eastern societies, the institution of the priesthood was closely tied with the monarchy. According to the Tanakh , after a period of decentralized and un-institutionalized political authority (described in the book of Judges ), the Children of Israel demanded that God provide them with a king. At first, Samuel (who may be considered the last judge, or the first prophet) anointed Saul of the tribe of Benjamin; later he anointed David of the tribe of Judah, and established the House of David as the definitive royal line.

The religious authority of the priests was centralized and institutionalized with the construction of Temple In Jerusalem around 950 BCE . , and when the high priest Zadok anointed Solomon king. Priests during the First Temple Era (from around 950 BCE to 586 BCE ) were limited to the Temple service and interpreting and teaching Torah; political power officially rested in the hands of a king who ruled, ideally, by divine right.

In most ancient societies, sacrifice was the only form of worship. Unlike many other religions of the time, however, the Children of Israel had sacred texts (according to traditional Jews, revealed at Mt. Sinai; according to critical scholars, based on earlier literary and oral sources and later edited into the Torah , or Five Books of Moses) which contained moral stories and teachings, as well as laws, which provided all people with ways to worship their God in the course of their everyday lives. Prophets , inspired by God and by the values and teachings embodied in the sacred texts, however, often criticized the king, elites, or the masses and provided another potent political force.

Both the Temple and the Monarchy were destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE , and most Jews were sent into exile.

PHARISEES IN THE SECOND TEMPLE ERA

The Persian Period

In 539 BCE the Persians conquered Babylon and in 537 BCE , inaugurating the Persian period of Jewish history, Cyrus The Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple (completed in 515 BCE ). He did not, however, allow the restoration of the monarchy, which left the priests as the dominant authority. Without the constraining power of the monarchy, the authority of the Temple was amplified. Around this time the Sadducee party emerged as the party of priests and allied elites; the name ''Sadducee'' comes from Zadok . Nevertheless, the Second Temple had been constructed under the auspices of a foreign power, and there were lingering questions about its legitimacy. This provided the condition for the development of various sects (including Josephus's "schools of thought"), each of which claimed exclusive authority to represent "Judaism," and typically shunned social intercourse, especially marriage, with members of other sects.

One of the earliest of these competing sects, the Pharisees, had its origins in a relatively new group of authorities — scribes and sages. The end of the Babylonian Exile saw not only the construction of the Second Temple, but the redaction of the Torah (“Teaching”), the five books of Moses, as well (see Documentary Hypotheses ). Although the priests controlled the monarchy and the Temple, scribes and sages (who would later come to be addressed as '' Rabbi '', "my master") monopolized the study of the Torah, which was read publicly on market-days, a practice which was institutionalized after the return from the Babylonian Exile . These sages identified with the prophets (political and religious reformers active in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, who came from other tribes than Levi), and developed and maintained an oral tradition alongside of the Holy Writ. The rift between the priests and the sages developed during the Hellenistic period, when the Jews faced new political and cultural struggles.

The Hellenistic Period

The Hellenistic period of Jewish history began in 332 BCE when Alexander The Great conquered Persia. Upon his death in 323 BCE , his empire was divided among his generals. At first, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies , but in 198 BCE ,the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire , under Antiochus III, seized control of Judea.

The Near East had long been cosmopolitan, and was especially so during the Hellenistic period. Several languages were used, and the matter of the ''lingua franca'' is still subject of some debate. The Jews almost certainly spoke Aramaic among themselves. Greek was at least to some extent a trade language in the region, and indeed throughout the entire eastern portion of the Mediterranean. Thus, historian Shaye Cohen has observed that
:All the Judaisms of the Hellenistic period, of both the diaspora and the land of Israel, were Hellenized, that is, were integral parts of the culture of the ancient world. Some varieties of Judaism were more hellenized than others, but none was an island unto itself. It is a mistake to imagine that the land of Palestine preserved a "pure" form of Judaism and that the diaspora was the home of adulterated or diluted forms of Judaism. The term "Hellenistic Judaism" makes sense, then, only as a chronological indicator for the period from Alexander the Great to the Macabees or perhaps to the Roman conquests of the first century BCE. As a descriptive term for a certain type of Judaism, however, it is meaningless because all the Judaisms of the Hellenistic period were "Hellenistic." (Cohen 1987: 37)

There are significant distinctions in the manner in which Hellenism influenced factions within the Jewish world of that time. Some assimilated Greek language, dress and sciences. Others wholeheartedly incorporated Greek philosophy and culture, to the point where they assimilated their understanding of Judaism into a Hellenic idiom.

Cultural Struggles with Hellenism

Jews had to grapple with the values of and Laws through which this covenant took material and practical form — applied only to them. This tension between the universal and the particular in Judaism led to new interpretations, some of which were influenced by Hellenic thought and in response to Gentile interest in Judaism.

Political Struggles with Hellenism

Generally, the Jews accepted foreign rule when they were only required to pay tribute, and otherwise allowed to govern themselves internally. Nevertheless, Jews were divided between those favoring hellenization and those opposing it, and were divided over allegiance to the Ptolemies or Seleucids. When the High Priest Simon II died in 175 BCE , conflict broke out between supporters of his son Onias III (who opposed hellenization, and favored the Ptolemies) and his son Jason (who favored hellenization, and favored the Seleucids). A period of political intrigue followed, with priests such as Menelaus bribing the king to win the High Priesthood, and accusations of murder of competing contenders for the title. The result was a brief civil war. Huge numbers of Jews flocked to Jason's side, and in 167 BCE the Seleucid king Antiochus IV invaded Judea, entered the Temple, and stripped it of money and ceremonial objects. Jason fled to Egypt, and Antiochus imposed a program of forced hellenization, requiring Jews to abandon their own laws and customs. At this point Mattathias and his five sons, John, Eleazar, Simon, Jonathan, and Judah Maccabee , priests of the Hasmon family living in the area of ancient Modi'in , assumed leadership of a bloody revolt against the Seleucids.

Judah liberated Jerusalem in 165 BCE and restored the Temple. Fighting continued, and Judah and his brother Jonathan were killed. In 141 BCE an
assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean dynasty. When Simon was killed in 135 BCE , his son John Hyrcanus took his place as high priest and king.

The Hasmonean Period

After defeating the Seleucid forces, Judah's nephew John Hyrcanus established a new monarchy in the form of the priestly Hasmonean dynasty in 152 BCE — thus establishing priests as political as well as religious authorities. Although the Hasmoneans were heroes for resisting the Seleucids, their reign lacked the legitimacy conferred by descent from the Davidic dynasty of the First Temple Era.

The Emergence of the Saducees, Essenes, and Pharisees

The rift between the priests and the sages grew during the Hellenistic period, when the Jews faced new political and cultural struggles. Around this time the Sadducee party emerged as the party of the priests and allied elites (the name ''Sadducee'' comes from Zadok ).

The Essenes may have emerged as a sect of dissident priests. They are believed to have rejected either the Seleucid appointed high priests, or the Hasmonean high priests, as illegitimate. Ultimately, they rejected the Second Temple, arguing that the Essene community was itself the new Temple, and that obedience to the law represented a new form of sacrifice.

The Pharisee ("separatist") party emerged largely out of the group of scribes and sages who harked back to Ezra and the Great Assembly. The meaning of the name is unclear; it may refer to their rejection of Hellenic culture or to their objection to the Hasmonean monopoly on power. It is difficult to state at what time the Pharisees, as a party, arose. Josephus first mentions them in connection with Jonathan, the successor of Judas Maccabeus ("Ant." xiii. 5, § 9). One of the factors that distinguished the Pharisees from other groups prior to the destruction of the Temple was their belief that all Jews had to observe the purity laws (which applied to the Temple service) ''outside'' the Temple. The major difference, however, was the continued adherence of the Pharisees to the laws and traditions of the Jewish people in the face of assimilation. As Josephus noted, the Pharisees were considered the most expert and accurate expositors of Jewish law.

During the Hasmonean period, the Saducees and Pharisees functioned primarily as political parties. Although the Pharisees had opposed the wars of expansion of the Hasmoneans and the forced conversions of the Idumeans, The political rift between them became wider when Pharisees demanded that the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus choose between being king and being High Priest. In response, Alexander Jannai openly sided with the Sadducees by adopting their rites in the Temple. His actions caused a riot in the Temple and led to a brief civil war that ended with a bloody repression of the Pharisees, although at his deathbed the king called for a reconciliation between the two parties. Alexander was succeeded by his widow, Salome Alexandra , whose brother was Shimon ben Shetach, a leading Pharisee. Upon her death her elder son, Hyrcanus , sought Pharisee support, and her younger son, Aristobulus, sought the support of the Sadducees. The conflict between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus culminated in a civil war that ended when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE and inaugurated the Roman period of Jewish history.

Josephus attests that Salome Alexandra was very favorably inclined toward the Pharisees and that their political influence grew tremendously under her reign, especially in the institution known as the Sanhedrin . Later texts like the Mishnah and the Talmud record a host of rulings ascribed to the Pharisees concerning sacrifices and other ritual practices in the Temple, torts, criminal law, and governance. The influence of the Pharisees over the lives of the common people remained strong and their rulings on Jewish law were deemed authoritative by many. Although these texts were written long after these periods, many scholars have said that they are a fairly reliable account of history during the Second Temple era.

The Roman Period

According to Josephus, the Pharisees appeared before Pompey asking him to interfere and restore the old priesthood while abolishing the royalty of the Hasmoneans altogether ("Ant." xiv. 3, § 2). They regarded Pompey’s defilement of the Temple In Jerusalem as a divine punishment of Sadducean misrule. Pompey ended the monarchy and named Hyrcanus high priest and ethnarch (a lesser title than "king"). Six years later Hyrcanus was deprived of the remainder of political authority and ultimate jurisdiction was given to the Proconsul of Syria , who ruled through Hyrcanus's Idumaean associate Antipater , and later Antipater's two sons Phasael (military governor of Judea) and Herod (military governor of the Galilee). In 40 BCE E Aristobulus's son Antigonus overthrew Hyrcanus and named himself king and high priest, and Herod fled to Rome.

The Herodian Dynasty, the Procuratorship, and the Sanhedrin

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Pharisees